Another top adviser mysteriously bails on Mike Pence

| 5:10 pm EDT September 15, 2017
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Donald Trump has already gone through so many top advisers and senior staffers in less than eight months in office, with so many of them departing in controversial or scandalous fashion, it’s been difficult to keep up. But he’s not the only one who’s been losing people. Mike Pence is now losing enough staffers that it may be time to ask if his office might be every bit as unstable as Trump’s team. Pence’s latest departure in particular raises eyebrows.

The trouble for Mike Pence started back in June when his chief of staff resigned (link). At the time, this could have been written off as perhaps an isolated aberration. Now Pence is also losing his press secretary Marc Lotter, who is leaving for no particular stated reason (link). The departure of two of Pence’s top people in less than eight months points to a deeper problem for him.

There are a few different possible explanations for why Pence can’t seem to hold onto his top staffers. One would be that he failed to hire the right people to begin with, which would be a disconcerting sign of ineptness on his part, considering that he has past experience putting high level political staffs together and should be skilled at it by now. Another explanation could be that Pence’s office is scandal plagued – perhaps as a result of his complicity in Trump’s Russia scandal coverup – and some staffers are looking to bail before it gets ugly.

Of course Mike Pence hasn’t lost nearly as many senior advisers as Donald Trump has lost. But even Pence is losing top people more quickly than he should. What’s going wrong here? This is worth watching closely going forward. If Pence loses yet another top staffer in the coming months, it would point to worsening instability.